Assessing the mood of voters based on any primary election can be tricky, given the low turnout. This time, however, one message was easy to decipher.
Despite a gloomy economy and high unemployment, Snohomish County voters were generally kind to incumbents in last week’s primary. A stark exception was in the race for a seat on the Snohomish County PUD board, where first-term commissioner Don Berkey was sent to the showers, finishing third in a five-way race. PUD customers currently pay the highest power rates in the state, and they didn’t miss a chance to voice their displeasure.
That’s just one piece of evidence that voters had one eye on the ballot and the other on their wallet. If a message was being sent, it was this: If you’re going to ask for voters’ money, you’d better make a compelling case.
There wasn’t knee-jerk opposition to tax issues. In most cases, voters said yes to tangible safety proposals, approving taxes for emergency medical services and fire protection. Big-ticket items, though, were another matter.
In Granite Falls, an issue to sell $21 million in bonds for a new high school fell several points short of the 60 percent approval it needed. A $42.5 million bond issue to expand Valley General Hospital in Monroe, which would have cost the owner of a $200,000 house nearly $100 a year, suffered the same fate. And by a narrow margin, county voters said no to a tenth-of-a-cent hike in the sales tax to operate an expanded county jail.
The school and hospital issues may resurface, and County Executive Bob Drewel plans to ask the county council to bring the jail measure before voters again in February. Construction of the $86.5 million jail expansion — already approved without a tax increase — will begin soon. Without new revenues, though, the money to run it will come out of the general fund, likely forcing cuts in other services.
Everett banker Mike Deller, a member of the committee that pushed the jail tax, identified part of the problem the day after the measure came up short.
"This is an important community issue," he told Herald reporter Jim Haley, "and I really don’t know if the community fully understands the impact of the vote."
Precisely.
Voters need an unvarnished picture of what the impact will be. Drewel and the county council should consider identifying the services that stand to be lost if the tax increase isn’t approved.
Will it mean fewer deputies to keep our streets safe? Fewer prosecutors to put criminals away? Fewer programs to stem the tide of repeat offenders? Officials should take a look at the future without the tax increase, and describe it to voters, making a clear case.
Without straight answers, voters aren’t in a mood to say yes.
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